Hospital workers consider joining union

Updated 1:18 am, Wednesday, June 17, 2015

DANBURY — Western Connecticut Health Network has terminated a consulting firm that hospital employees said created a hostile atmosphere during meetings they were required to attend.

A spokeswoman for WCHN, the umbrella organization for Danbury and New Milford hospitals, said members of the firm had “backgrounds contrary to our organizational values.”

The issue with National Labor Consultants is among the reasons some say are driving about 800 nursing assistants and other workers at New Milford and Danbury hospitals to consider joining the union.

Nerval White, a certified nursing assistant, said the organizing campaign began more than a year ago when management cut weekend and night pay differentials “and told housekeeping they can go work at McDonald’s if they don’t like it.”

The lost pay differentials add up to between $6,000 and $10,000 a year, White said.

According to the union, hospital employees are making only between $12 and $20 an hour.

AFT Connecticut, which is organizing service, environmental, administrative and maintenance workers and patient-care providers, has accused hospital managers of interference. Managers are accused of offering pay increases to discourage union support, dismissing the importance of unions to dissuade employees from voting for AFT Connecticut and other unlawful statements, the National Labor Relations Board said.

The agency is investigating.

Andrea Rynn, spokeswoman for WCHN, said the organization "values and respects every employee, both those represented by a labor union as well as the many employees who have chosen not to be represented by a labor union."

“As an organization, we are committed to maintaining an environment of respect and open communication with our employees,” she said.

“These workers have been required to attend mandated meetings with representatives of National Labor Consultants where the atmosphere is one of harassment, coercion and intimidation,” said Matt O’Connor, spokesman of AFT Connecticut.

Rynn said during this process, “We felt it was important for us to have an open dialogue with our employees and also provide them with more than one perspective on this subject.”

Natonal Labor Consultants COO Martin Dreiss served 33 months in federal prison on security fraud charges, according to federal documents from the U.S. District Court Eastern District of New York. The charges were filed in 1999. Dreiss is making restitution payments in the amount of $1.5 million, court documents state. Payments began 30 days after his release from prison.

“It has been brought to our attention that individuals of the federally regulated firm hired to provide guidance during the union membership campaign have backgrounds contrary to our organizational values,” Rynn said. “Once we learned this information, we immediately terminated the contract with the firm and all of their associates.”

Chapin said she didn’t know why WCHN didn’t do its homework.

“We don’t understand why Western Connecticut Health Network would bring these people in,” Chapin said. “In New Milford, we have had a really good relationship with the hospital. The union hasn’t been a detriment.”

Employees will vote Friday whether to join the union.

Organizing as many as 800 hospital workers is a "fairly large election," said Michael Cass, officer-in-charge at the NLRB in Hartford.

Gary N. Chaison, a professor of industrial relations at the Graduate School of Management at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., said organized labor, which is struggling to grow in the private sector, is finding support from nurses and other health-care workers. Employees are increasingly turning to unions in response to uncertainty in the industry, he said.

O’Connor said that was a major issue among health care workers.

"They were feeling shut out of decisions impacting patient care," he said.